A Gesture of Kindness
by driftingstar
Summary: One shot. In which Sasuke and Neji have two interesting confrontations and kindness really does pay off. NejiSasu… ish. Or just friendship.


** A Gesture of Kindness**

One shot. In which Sasuke and Neji have two interesting confrontations and kindness really does pay off. NejiSasu… ish. Or just friendship.

Warning: Not edited due to malfunction in MS Word which has destroyed spell check function. Slight Out Of Character-ness.

* * *

The air was knocked out of his lungs when one Uchiha Sasuke collided head on with him, knocking him backwards onto the cemented floor with the shorter boy's head on his chest. With a few colourful choice words, Hyuuga Neji roughly shoved him off. He leapt to his feet, only to be assaulted by brilliant splashes of lights dotting his vision..

After his vision settled, he glared down at the figure before him through narrowed silver eyes, thoroughly prepared to give him the beating of his life – regardless if he was Uchiha Sasuke or not – if he did not present him with a satisfying excuse. However, the (uncharacteristic) sight that greeted him knocked all thoughts of violence from his mind.

The dark haired boy still had not moved from where Neji had pushed him but instead had drawn his knees up to his chest to make himself look as small and as unnoticeable as possible. His widened eyes were darting quickly around his surroundings and the Hyuuga could percieve a hint of unexplained … terror? within the black depths. His hair was mussed, and his clothes had been ripped and torn in various places. Neji also noticed that one of his legs was resting in an odd angle and slight gashes decorated the visible skin of his arms and legs. Seeing this deeply unsettled him.

"Uchiha. What's wrong?" he inquired, raising one slender eyebrow. The only sounds that answered him were the deep, ragged breaths of someone who had been running for his life. Frowning, the genius ninja bent down to grab hold of his shoulder and was surprised by how much he was trembling. Judging by his position, he was too frazzled and exhausted to move. In his distress, Sasuke did not even seem to have registered his presence.

Although he had little to no connections or ties with the Uchiha – they have barely even exchanged words before – Hyuuga Neji was aware of only two possible things that could cause the normally calm and composed boy to loose his composure like this.

The first, was Orochimaru, however, considering the fact that the entire village was not in a state of total and complete pandemonium and not a single squad of ANBU was in sight, this was probably not the case. Probably. And the second possibility…

…

"**KYYAAA ! SAAA-SUKEKUUUN!"**

"**YOO HOO!"**

"**COME OUT, COME OUT, WHEREEEEVER YOU ARE!"**

…rabid, insane, obsessed, crazy, blood-thirsty, **_ninja_** fangirls.

"**I WANT YOUR BODY, SASUKE-KUN!" (?)**

…

… wait… what?

…

Neji cringed at the horrible, high-pitched, evil, falsely sweet voices of a group of girls(?) that had no lives. He glanced down to see that the normally pale skin of the dark haired boy had just turned several shades whiter and was now looking about wildly with a "deer–caught–in–the–headlights–and–is–about–to–be–turned–into–roadkill" look on his delicate features.

Now, Neji is considered to be a very cold-blooded person to some people (which is not true, of course) but even he (who had his own fair share of fangirls) could not help but be sympathetic to the frantic, shaking boy before him who was now muttering underneath his breath. Neji could make out something like "fangirls" and "running for 17 hours" and "attacked me in the _shower_" and "was that Orochimaru!".

Shaking his head slightly, he bent down in front of the boy and tapped him slightly on his shoulder to get his attention, with little success. Heaving a sigh and cursing his generosity, Neji abruptly seized Sasuke's trembling form and hoisted him over his shoulder, brushing off his bewildered cries of protest, and gracefully leapt out of the alley and headed for a safe haven.

Minutes later into the day, found the two near the edge of Konoha and in one of the forested training grounds. Selecting a tall tree, Neji dumped the disoriented Sasuke roughly onto a thick branch and then kneeled down himself to catch his breath.

For a few moments, no words were exchanged between them as they both tried to calm their hearts. Then, Sasuke glanced up at Neji shyly before quickly looking down at his sandals, his bangs obscuring most of his features.

"…did you… did… did we lose them…?" he questioned, careful not to keep eye contact.

"…Aa." came the affirmative answer. An awkward silence reigned between them again. They both fidgeted slightly, both at a loss of what to do next.

Slowly and carefully, Sasuke lifted his head slightly to lock eyes with his savior.

"I," here he paused and swallowed before continuing, "I… I appreciate the… help and…" he trailed off slightly and willed himself to continue very softly, "… thank you." Neji looked confused for a second. No one usually thanked him for anything. He settled for saying,

"You're welcome."

After the two made sure that there were no traces of fangirls (and Orochimaru?), the two bloodline geniuses parted ways, thinking that it would be the last time the two would meet alone.

However, they met again only a week later.

The air was knocked out of his lungs when he and the other boy collided head on with each other, knocking them both backwards onto the tiled floor with the older boy's head on the younger's chest. Sasuke dimly registered the boy's long black hair and wide frantic silver eyes. He heard the heavy sound of numerous footfalls and the piercing shrieks of "**NEJI-KUN! NEJI-KUN! NEJI-KUN**" and the "**I WANT YOUR BODY TOO, NEJI-KUN!**".

Sasuke took in the battered condition of the Hyuuga genius and sighed before carefully lifting him up onto his back and made for the forest.

As he leapt swiftly from roof to roof, Neji mumbled a soft "thank you" into his back. Sasuke responded with a small smile that Neji couldn't see (or could he).

"You're welcome."

* * *

Owari da. 


End file.
